This BREAKING NEWS episode is a candid reaction to Ruby Central’s latest shakeup, with Chris, Andrew, and David unpacking leadership departures, financial strain, the cancelled gala, and what all of it says about the organization’s direction. The conversation moves beyond the headlines into bigger questions about trust, transparency, community values, conference strategy, RubyGems sustainability, and whether Ruby Central can rebuild credibility by involving more of the community in what happens ...
Apr 24, 2026•39 min•Ep. 348
Chris and David welcome guest John Athayde, who runs the branding and UX consultancy, Meticulous. They dive into John’s unusual path through the Rails world as a designer, front-end developer, consultant, author, and UX thinker. The conversation moves from early Rails history and The Rails View into a broader discussion about why designers need to understand implementation, how AI is changing product and UI work, where component-based design is headed, and why browser support is still one of the...
Apr 17, 2026•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 347
This episode of Remote Ruby opens with stories of exhaustion from a sleepless week. Then, Chris, Andrew, and David spend most of the episode unpacking two big themes: trust and governance in open source, and the growing mess of software security and AI-assisted development. They dig into the new Ruby Central write-up on the RubyGems/Bundler fracture and question whether it actually clarifies the path forward, then pivot into the Axios npm compromise, supply-chain risk, and how fragile modern pac...
Apr 10, 2026•38 min•Ep. 346
On this episode, Chris, Andrew, and David bounce from Ruby and Rails security updates into the messy realities of caching, UI architecture, and browser support. They break down the latest Zlib-related Ruby CVE, Dalli updates, Rails security and bugfix releases, and what maintenance windows mean in practice. Then, they swap stories about Redis, Memcached, observations about GitHub’s reliability amid massive Claude attributed code activity, and the kinds of performance problems that only show up a...
Apr 03, 2026•59 min•Ep. 345
Chris, Andrew, and David catch up on health, sleep deprivation, and the new Invincible season and Fallout . David shares some RubyConf CFP submissions news and this year’s broad conference themes. They discuss Andrew finishing difficult authentication work, touching on OAuth/SSO complexity and pricing, the idea of products built more for bots than humans, and where AI is proving useful, especially for debugging and research. The conversation eventually widens into a more skeptical look at the AI...
Mar 27, 2026•34 min•Ep. 344
On this episode, Andrew’s buried in messy authentication work spread across legacy code, Chris recounts a frustrating GitHub Actions debugging session, and David explains the mental drain of working across both Vue 2 and Vue 3 in the same application. They talk about using workflow run triggers, scheduled builds, and GitHub’s new Agentic Copilot workflows such as CI Doctor, Automatic Code Simplifier, and issue/PR management, while lamenting low-quality AI-generated PRs and paid AI code review to...
Mar 20, 2026•54 min•Ep. 343
Chris and David welcome back Adam McCrea from Judoscale, to discuss the uncertainty around Heroku after Salesforce’s announcement that it would stop taking new enterprise customers. Adam shares how the news landed in real time during a founder’s retreat, and the conversation expands into what Heroku’s apparent “maintenance mode” means for developers, pricing, autoscaling, platform alternatives, and the broader challenge of building durable developer businesses in the AI era. They also touch on J...
Mar 13, 2026•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 342
Chris, Andrew, and David welcome special guest Jeff Dickey (jdx), creator of mise, discussing his background rewriting the Heroku CLI from Ruby to Node due to Ruby distribution/sandboxing issues. The conversation digs into why language CLIs are hard to distribute, the tradeoffs between shims vs PATH-based version switching, why tasks can be the “clean” solution, and Jeff’s Rust-first tooling philosophy. They also dive into his other projects: usage (CLI docs/completions), Pitchfork (dev daemon r...
Mar 06, 2026•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 341
Cameron Dutro returns to the show to introduce LiveComponent, a new library that adds client-side state and targeted re-rendering to Rails ViewComponent using Hotwire + Stimulus with minimal JavaScript. Chris, Andrew, and Cameron dig into why he built it, how it serializes component state and models, how updates flow from events to fast server-rendered HTML morphs, where it shines compared to plain Turbo/Stimulus, and how optional React support can help with migration and interoperability. Hit d...
Feb 27, 2026•53 min•Ep. 340
Andrew and David hold down the fort without Chris and catch up on what they’ve been watching and reading, before welcoming back Joe Masilotti, the show’s most listened to guest from last year. They talk about Hotwire Native’s momentum, why “Bridge Components” are the unlock for truly native features, Joe’s push toward SwiftUI compatibility, the messy reality of in-app purchases, and how his “PurchaseKit” aims to simplify the whole Apple/Google webhook maze. We also hear about Joe’s new podcast w...
Feb 20, 2026•41 min•Ep. 339
On this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris, Andrew, and David dive into the newly released Claude Opus 4.6 and share their frustrations and solutions for debugging a turbo stream issue in Rails. They discuss a range of debugging challenges they've faced, including Rails credentials decryption errors and handling unexpected URL parameters in Pagy. The conversation shifts to the Ruby Gala, a fundraising event tied to RubyConf, highlighting its purpose, structure, and some notable people being honored. ...
Feb 13, 2026•47 min•Ep. 338
In this episode, Chris, Andrew, and David kick off with humorous stories about coding experiences across different languages, and then they welcome back guest Kevin Newton who shares his journey from Shopify to Meta. Then, Kevin discusses the intricacies of Ruby and Python, particularly the challenges and trade-offs in their runtime implementations. The conversation then shifts to the development and adoption of the Prism parser in Ruby, highlighting its impact on various projects. Lastly, Kevin...
Feb 06, 2026•56 min•Ep. 337
In this episode, Blue Ridge Ruby organizers Jeremy Smith and Joe Peck join Andrew, Chris, and David to talk about the conference returning in 2026. They explain why it’s different (single-track, long breaks, and memorable community activities), what they’ve learned from running it, and how folks can help (speaking, sponsoring, and attending). The discussion also highlights the importance of community and in-person interactions in the tech industry, offering insights into how these events support...
Jan 30, 2026•38 min•Ep. 336
In this episode, Chris, Andrew, and David dive into details about refactoring with SQL, updates on new Ruby versions, and share their views on various developer tools including Mise, Overmind, and Foreman. They also touch on standardizing tools within their teams, the benefits of using Mise for Postgres, and the efficiency of task scripts. The conversation also covers encoding issues, Basecamp Fizzy SSFR protection, and rich-text editors like Lexxy and its application in Basecamp. Additionally, ...
Jan 23, 2026•34 min•Ep. 335
In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris, Andrew, and David have conversations from New Year's resolutions and monitor specifications, to the sustainability challenges of open source projects like Tailwind CSS. They discuss the pros and cons of various hardware, upgrading to Ruby 4.0, recent issues in software projects, and the evolving landscape of AI's impact on productivity tools. They also touch on gaming experiences with Arc Raiders and the never-ending monitor hunt. Hit download now to hear m...
Jan 16, 2026•52 min•Ep. 334
In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris, Andrew, and David humorously discuss the rapid increase of 'wrapped' features in various apps, recount personal experiences with food apps, and then dive into their favorite conference moments of the year. They also explore the concept of UI affordances and its importance in web design and give a preview of upcoming conferences in 2026, and a brief discussion on modern CSS and JavaScript elements. Hit download now to hear much more! Links Chris Oliver X And...
Jan 02, 2026•36 min•Ep. 333
Chris, Andrew, and David are back together, and the conversation starts out with TV talk, Fallout hype, why some shows overstay their welcome ( Prison Break ), and the “season one magic” problem ( Reacher ). Then there’s a big shoutout to Marco’s Rails Luminary win, and a deep dive into AI rabbit holes: self-hosting LLMs, Mac minis, and the looming reality of both token costs and RAM shortages. They discuss the Ruby releases (3.4.8 + Ruby 4.0 preview3), highlighting practical fixes, previewing f...
Dec 26, 2025•33 min•Ep. 332
In this episode, Chris and David Hill catch up on wild winter temperature swings, then dive into what Chris has been refactoring in Jumpstart to reduce merge pain, cut dependencies, and make upgrades smoother. The conversation branches into AI-assisted coding pitfalls and where AI shines, new web security headers that could simplify CSRF handling, and a promising new “old school Heroku on steroids” platform from Evan Phoenix called Miren, plus a few Hatchbox deployment learnings along the way. H...
Dec 19, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 331
Chris and Andrew kick things off with some weather whiplash and snowblower talk before introducing a new guest on the show, long-time Rubyist David Hill. They chat about fast food and favorite shows, David’s accidental path into Ruby and Rails, and various projects he’s worked on, including an AED management application. The discussion also touches on the new open-source release of Basecamp's Kanban board, Fizzy, and some innovative CSS techniques used in the project. The conversation wraps up w...
Dec 12, 2025•43 min•Ep. 330
Andrew kicks off at 8 a.m. with six Docker containers running, and he and Chris dive into what modern Rails development looks like inside dev containers—covering Rails’ own images and features, using Mise and Playwright instead of Selenium, and why OrbStack has replaced Docker Desktop on their Macs. They talk through the trade-offs of running services in containers, the quirks of Kamal’s new local registry, and how Chris is turning all of this into a practical SaaS building series that shows rea...
Dec 05, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 329
Andrew returns from SF Ruby with a lot more than conference swag! He brings a clear snapshot of where Ruby, Rails, and AI are headed right now. In this episode, he and Chris walk through the most impactful talks from SF Ruby, share highlights of engaging discussions with other developers and friends, reminisces about nostalgic tech items, and explores insightful conversations on the future of Rails, startup culture, AI's impact on programming, developer anxiety, and they share product ideas from...
Nov 28, 2025•44 min•Ep. 328
In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew have a lively conversation with Brendan Buckingham and Ryan Frisch from the Rails Business Podcast. They discuss their experiences and journeys with Ruby on Rails, starting from their early encounters with the technology to hosting a specialized Rails podcast. Critical technical topics are covered, including managing Stripe API data integrity, upgrading Rails applications, and using modern JavaScript tools like Turbo Frames and Turbo Streams. Bren...
Nov 21, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 327
In this episode, guest Nate Berkopec joins Chris and Andrew to discuss the current state and cultural controversies surrounding Ruby Gems, Bundler, and open-source projects in general. The conversation dives into the split within the Ruby community, the complexities of maintaining key projects, and the challenges of funding and sustaining open-source work. Nate shares his experiences with Puma and his philosophy on community-driven contributions and project ownership. The episode also explores b...
Nov 14, 2025•47 min•Ep. 326
In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew catch up with Chris discussing the arrival of a new baby and the challenges of balancing work and parenting. Then, they dive into the complexities of dealing with OpenSSL 3.6 issues on their development environments, exploring various debugging attempts and ultimately finding a workaround. The conversation also touches on the ongoing drama within the Ruby community, expressing concerns about its impact and the need for unity. Additionally, they sh...
Oct 19, 2025•51 min•Ep. 325
In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris is on paternity leave celebrating the birth of his son, so Andrew brings in Drew Bragg and Rachael Wright-Munn (aka ChaelCodes), to discuss recent controversies surrounding Ruby Central and its alleged takeover of Ruby Gems and Bundler. They dive into the timeline of events, conflicting narratives, communication failures, and the underlying security concerns. They address theories and facts, scrutinize the governance of Ruby Central, and discuss the implicat...
Oct 08, 2025•51 min•Ep. 324
In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew chat with Travis Dockter, the founder of a brand-new Ruby conference, Blastoff Rails. They dive deep into Travis’s journey from business school to bootcamp, his love for conferences, and why he decided to organize one of his own in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From planning venues and sponsors to shaping a unique conference philosophy, Travis shares both the behind-the-scenes challenges and the excitement of creating a new community space for Rails de...
Oct 03, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 323
In this episode, Chris and Andrew reflect on their recent trip to Rails World 2025 in Amsterdam, sharing travel adventures, highlights from the conference, and insights into major Rails announcements. From slide-heavy talks to new features like ReActionView, Action Push, Kamal Geo Proxy, Hotwire Native, and Action Text Lexxy, they explore how the Rails ecosystem continues to push developer experience forward. Hit download now to hear more! Links Chris Oliver X Andrew Mason Bluesky Judoscale- Rem...
Sep 26, 2025•43 min•Ep. 322
Live from Rails World 2025 in Amsterdam, Chris and Andrew hang with Andy Croll and Jason Charnes to trade conference vibes, hair envy for DHH, and real talk on the keynote roadmap: Turbo offline, Hotwire Native 1.3, Kamal, “CI on your machine,” SQLite, and Beamer. The conversation also touches on the quirky and entertaining embassy experience at Rails World, favorite talks, plans for the final day of the conference, and the museum party. Hit download now for an episode that will keep making you ...
Sep 19, 2025•35 min•Ep. 321
In this episode of Remote Ruby, Chris and Andrew chat with returning guests Irina Nazarova and Vladimir Dementyev to discuss the upcoming SF Ruby Conference, a vibrant event taking place in San Francisco on November 19-20, 2025. They delve into the significance of the conference for startups and the Ruby community, highlighting the venue, keynote speakers, workshops, and fun activities planned. Additional topics include experiences with AI, productivity tools for developers, and running Rails in...
Sep 12, 2025•59 min
In this episode, Chris chats with guest Jim Remsik, Founder of Flagrant, on the significance of Ruby and Rails conferences. They discuss the nuances of organizing and attending such events, including the challenges and rewards of emceeing, the importance of community guidelines, and the value of having diverse participation. Jim shares insights into the upcoming XO Ruby Conference Series, their strategy behind choosing cities, and ensuring meaningful, smaller-scale interactions among attendees. ...
Sep 05, 2025•59 min
